One more thing for my to-do list: learning the dvorak keyboard layout. This post may be a bit short, as I've been on this layout for barely an hour. My first impressions are that all of the key placements seem very natural, except for the 'L' key, which is located under the right pinkee, where the 'P' is on a QWERTY keyboard, and that overall I expect this to be far more efficient. Wish me luck!

I'm not sure whether it is insane or brilliant, but I've decided to do NaNoWriMo again this year.  The break-neck, seat of my pants pace and the comaraderie of this lunatic event are not to be missed.

As if undertaking the frantic journey to 50,000 words weren't enough, I've also launched wrimos.net: a resource site for NaNoWriMo participants and writers in general. Wrimos.net currently features SVN repos for novelists, a weekly "Ask the ML" column, Links Library, planet page, atd a downloads section with issue tracking. Coming soon are a writing prompts database, content rating system, and story elements (character, setting, and plot point) generator.

Twenty more minutes until NaNoWriMo. I am exhausted after my long day, but I want to kick off at midnight with my pals, so here I am sitting at the computer playing with my new ergonomic keyboard. So far, said keyboard doesn't seem easier on my wrists and hands, but I suspect that once I get my 'B' key issue under control, I will type faster on the ergo than on my normal keyboard. I have a plot... sort of. No characters yet. That's what I get for changing concepts in the eleventh hour.

I've been thinking about it in an offhand, "Oh, I'd never have time" sort of way for a couple of years. This year, thanks to my good friend Steve, I'm doing it. NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month For 30 days, I'm taking a break from my various volunteer opportunities, from playing online chess while my son naps, and from spending all of my time trying to be productive. I'm going to write a novel, and, for once in my life, not care if it's perfect. I'm excited, and apprehensive. I suppose now that I've emailed my mom to tell her about NaNoWriMo and encourage her to mention the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program to teachers at her school, promised Steve I'd be his partner in crime, and blogged about it, I have to do it. That is the scary part. That's also why I'm blogging about it -- so I have to do it. 30 days... 50,000 words... caffeine and chocolate without measure... no excuses. NaNoWriMo.